1913
1913: Theatres have complained about a Mr Johnson, of the National Association of Theatrical
Employees, who is travelling the country and calling Sunday afternoon meetings of local
stagehands, urging them to join the newly formed Union. Theatre, Music Hall and Cinema
managers have launched a Protection Fund to fight all attempts to impose the Union’s demands.
In a second dispute, the Amalgamated Musicians Union called a strike at Glasgow because
neither the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company nor Messrs Howard and Wyndham would agree to
pay half a night’s salary for each extra rehearsal required to launch the opera company’s season.
The employers refused even to consider this demand. The Orchestral Association of London
announced it was disassociating itself from any claims being made by the other unions of
musicians. Messrs Howard and Wyndham immediately declared it would dismiss all its local
musicians and would import an orchestra from London.

1913: Harry Fragson, the 44 year
old Anglo-French comedian, has
been shot dead by his own father in
a fit of jealousy over his son’s
successful career. Harry Fragson
was the first of the music hall
singers to accompany himself on
the piano. He was equally at home
on both sides of the Channel, with a
cockney accent in Paris and a
French accent in London. His
career was expanding rapidly as his
comedian father’s bookings were
falling away. In recent years he
had become very much in demand
for pantomime, playing the role of
“Dandigny” in “Cinderella”.

1913:
The Manager of the
Birkenhead Hippodrome
complained that his posters for
“Only an Artist’s Model”, “How
Girls are Brought to Ruin” and
“The White Slave Girl”, had been
banned, despite the fact that the
same posters have been displayed
in other towns without complaint.
The Birkenhead Justices Clerk
denied a “ban” and said the theatre
had simply been warned to be more
careful with the type of poster
exhibited.

1913: The Birmingham Repertory
Theatre has been opened by Mr
Barry Jackson, as the fore-runner
of a new approach to providing
theatre for provincial towns and
cities.

1913: Marie Lloyd and Bernard Dillon, the jockey, sailed on the Olympic to New York,
travelling under the name “Mr and Mrs Bernard Dillon”. As they were about to disembark,
they were challenged by an immigration inspector. “Is this man your lawful husband?” she was
asked. When she admitted they were not legally married they were both ordered back on board
the Olympic and told they would appear before a Board of Immigration at Ellis Island the
following morning.
At the hearing they were ordered to be deported from America on the grounds of immoral
conduct. An appeal was launched by the New York music hall managers, asking the Board to
change its attitude and allow Miss Lloyd to fulfil her contracts with the American theatres. The
Board agreed to allow them entry into the USA after accepting two bonds of surety that they
would return to England immediately after fulfilling her engagements, and further instructed
that the couple should live apart during their stay in America.

1913: Chung Ling Soo (Mr W.E.Robinson),
the American magician, was shot and killed
onstage at the Wood Green Empire. His act
consisted of catching bullets, fired by his
assistant, on a plate. The cause of the accident
is not established, but fellow performers
reported that Mr Robinson had been depressed,
and there are rumours that his death may have
been not an accident but suicide. In the Music
Hall world there are even rumours that he was
murdered by his wife—it seems he had left her
and was living with another woman. Whatever
the truth, Chung Ling Soo is more likely to be
remembered for his bizarre death rather than his
magnificent and brilliant illusions.

1913: Johnston Forbes-Robertson, newly
knighted, has announced he will retire from the
stage at the end of his current Drury Lane
season. He began his career with Samuel
Phelps in 1874, and then became a member of
Irving’s Lyceum company. Later he took over
as manager of the Lyceum. He was an
outstanding Hamlet, a much praised Romeo
(opposite Mrs Patrick Campbell) and had great
commercial success as the Stranger in Jerome
K.Jerome’s “The Passing of the Third Floor
Back”. He has always been noted for his good
looks, his elegant bearing and his beautiful
voice.
His farewell performance is to be as Hamlet,
with his wife, Gertrude Elliott playing Queen
Gertrude.